Women's Health Shortcuts

New Generation Health Center in New York Times Health Blog

The October 8, 2012 New York Times Well Blog covered "Texting the Teenage Patient." Our New Generation Health Center is included in that coverage. Read the excerpt below.

New Generation Health Center in San Francisco, a reproductive health clinic for adolescents, also incorporates social media into its services. If a teenager tests positive for a sexually transmitted disease, for example, and feels awkward about telling a partner, a clinician will point her to a Web site to anonymously inform partners through e-mail.

Recently, after financing for its schools program was cut, the clinic's coordinator, Shawna Pattison, started a frank blog, JustAskShawna. To balance privacy with candor, Ms. Pattison allows teenagers to e-mail her questions that she posts anonymously. Her answers are reviewed by the clinic's medical staff before she publishes them.